To "Backup" or not to backup, is not even the question. The only real question is 'what program do I use' ?

A $49.95 program would surely do the job. Right? Well, maybe, but there are also FREE programs available that that would also do the job, and maybe even better.

I might be called old, out of date, stuck in a rut, etc. etc. etc. and that's OK, because I have a program originally written in New Zealand somewhere around 1997, that just Worked.

It was called simply......"GHOST". it was written to run from a DOS boot disk (floppy disk). It was sold to Symantec in ~1998 and was updated as a DOS program through several generations till 2005 (approx.) when the last DOS version was released (Ghost 11.5).

I have that version, which I'm still using today, booted up from either a Flash Drive or CD. (It finally got too large to fit on a single floppy disk.)

Amazingly, it works just great for all versions of Microsoft OS's from DOS to Windows 8.1. A good friend who runs a server in Linux, says he uses it to back up his server. When running in Disk to Disk mode, it basically sees only ones and zeros and it backs up what it sees. It can back up a Data Disk, devoid of an OS.

I've also used it to backup a hard drive, to preserve the data, when the OS had become corrupted and would not even boot up the PC.

For that very reason, I encourage everyone to use a Backup scheme that does NOT involve the backup/restore program being only on the hard drive. When that HD crashes, the Backup/restore program is GONE too.

To be effective, the backup and restore program must be on some kind of bootable media. like a CD or flash drive.